LABEL LINK
Aug 1, 2001 12:00 PM, By Martin Brown
Francois Calonne, DJ and owner of Montreal, Canada's Disktrick/In-Filtration Records, fulfilled his long-held dream of starting a record label almost two years ago. “A good friend and owner of a multimedia company wanted a studio for producing sampling and TV music,” he says. “After three months, the label emerged.”
The label currently specializes in hard house and features internationally known Montreal artists like Mateo, Luc Raymond, Misstress Barbara, and Robert de la Gauthier. It has released two successful volumes of the Montréal Basement compilation series, as well as the Montréal House Musique album, which is also available on vinyl. Disktrick will soon be starting a trance division to satisfy public demand.
According to Calonne, Montreal is gaining a well-deserved reputation as a force in the world of electronica, thanks in part to other locally based labels like Turbo, Bombay, and Ascend. “Distributors, artists, and promoters are looking more at what's happening in Montreal,” he says. “More and more producers and labels from Canada are getting known globally.”
Location aside, Disktrick has built up an international community by using the Internet. Although Calonne appreciates the positive marketing results of his label's Web presence, he also acknowledges that maintaining that presence involves a lot of labor. “The Internet has been a great way for us to give music to more people, but it's hard work to update and take care of our site. We wish we could spend more time talking to people and providing them with samples of our music.” Calonne is currently working on the next generation of the Disktrick.com site, which will create a virtual music community.
Until now, Disktrick has mostly released music produced by friends made within that community. Although he is beginning to receive interesting music from all over the world, Calonne presently wants to specialize in artists from North America. However, he is open to changes in the future.
Bored with big names who just go for sales and don't move forward musically, Disktrick is always looking for new material and innovative artists to work with. If you submit material to Disktrick, be yourself. Calonne says that the biggest mistakes made by potential artists is “thinking they are superstars because they are DJs.” Potential producers should “be natural and don't think we make millions of dollars. First, we do this for the love of music and to elevate it to a higher level. If you do send something in, don't harass us, but certainly give us a friendly call to get our impressions.” Contact Disktrick at: Disktrick/In-Filtration Records, Francois Calonne, CP 363, Succ Ave Du Parc, Montreal, QC H2W 2N9; tel. (877) 623-8193; Web www.disktrick.com.
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